May Speaker Profile: Dave Josephson, Growth Coach

Dave will join us Monday May 14!  

Innovation Fueled by Respect

For Dave Josephson, marketing and sales coaching has been a part of life since the very beginning.

When he was in grade school, Dave told his Uncle Jim, a food engineer for Oscar Mayer®, what he thought kids would like for lunch: a sampling of meats, cheeses, and breads, and of course, a sweet treat for dessert. Dave even suggested the name of “Lunch Sampler.” A few short years later, Lunchables® hit the market, and today it is one of Oscar Mayers’ top selling packaged food items for children ages 6 to 10. So began Dave’s lifelong love affair with sales and marketing.

While in college, Dave assisted his father-in-law in the opening of several video stores, where in addition to stocking shelves, he also developed “Take-One,” a monthly video newsletter for video club members. Seeing that his family needed marketing dollars, he simply asked their video sales representative for some. By asking a simple question, Dave uncovered hundreds of dollars worth of co-op funds for his family’s new video store chain.

After college, Dave worked for a national home-business magazine publisher, where he coached home-business owners how to wisely spend their advertising dollars. His creativity and enthusiasm soon had him in charge of the magazine’s major accounts. Since his clients loved his marketing coaching, Dave hosted a weekly teleseminar called “Market Smarts,” where he coached hundreds of business owners around the world at a time.

Dave then pursued a marketing career where he would be able to work with one of the leading franchise systems in the country, Auntie Anne’s Hand-Rolled Soft Pretzels™. Here Dave realized that impulse buying and regional taste preferences had an impact on each location. Therefore, he coached his franchisees to uncover what their customers wanted and then how to market to them. Not only did this empower his franchisees, but it also drove up their sales by as much as 50% within as little as 6 months. Dave showed them how to leverage their marketing dollars by working directly with mall property managers. As a result of developing innovative partnerships, he helped save his franchisees thousands of dollars on advertising, as well as gave them the ability sell more with little to no effort.

Always admiring small business owners for their courage, Dave later partnered with his wife Dawn in her business, Cameo Publications, a boutique publishing house where they worked with some of the top business trainers and professional speakers around the world. In addition to publishing self-help and business books, Dave coached business consultants of the Fortune 500 companies. His reputation made him well known throughout various professional consulting circles as the Marketing Innovator.

Despite the success of Cameo Publications, Dave felt it was time to tackle a new adventure, so he took a position in Jacksonville, Florida at The Beaver Street Enterprise Center as their Program Coordinator. In this role, Dave used his creativity to motivate small business owners by helping them break their self-limiting barriers and empower them by learning how to leverage their business through effective branding and sales leadership. As part of this effort, Dave introduced SELL-Ebration, where he brought together Jacksonville’s top sales and marketing trainers to give advice to a packed event hall.

After witnessing how many business owners fall victim to working IN their businesses rather than ON their businesses, Dave became a certified coach in the Strategic Mindset® Process with The Growth Coach®.  Dave empowers business owners to Drive Success AND Balance Life™. Today, Dave’s mission is to help small business owners realize that they are truly worthy of being successful and that they are their best asset in their business.

Credentials

In total, Dave has over 20 years of marketing and sales coaching experience, and has personally coached more than 1,500 small business owners ranging from the start-ups to the mega-successful in many different industries. Dave holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Business Communications with a Minor in English from Rollins College and an Associate of Arts Degrees in Business Administration and in Paralegal Science.

To learn more about what Dave spends his time doing take a moment to visit his Growth Coach website. 

Innovation Fueled by Respect

You may ask yourself how do these two seemingly unrelated thoughts fit together. What I have learned by running teams focused on creating innovative ideas, approaches and products is that we must create environments that foster respect for innovation to flourish.

The environment that nurtures respect will allow diverse ideas to be expressed. It is this space that is the lifeblood of new thinking. Innovation requires the looking at a situation from as many perspectives as possible. Respect for all perspectives must be present in order for the team to truly see all the possibilities.

What are you thinking here? I am curious about your perspective??

May Speaker Profile: Katie Seay, American Heart Association

Katie will be one of our panelists for this month's Breakfast on May 14, where we will be discussing Innovation Fueled by Respect.

After practicing in the field of public relations for seven years, Katie Seay, APR, feels passionate about working for organizations that dedicate the majority of their operations to serving others.

An Atlanta native and Wolfson High School graduate, Katie’s passion for  all things equine, lead her to a bachelor of science in equestrian science from Stephen’s College in Columbia,  Missouri.   Katie worked as a riding instructor in Missouri and Louisiana, and then  ran her own riding lesson/boarding stable operation in Green Cove Springs, until returning to school in 2003. 

In December of 2004 Katie graduated from the University of Northeast Florida with a B.S. in Communications-Public Relations. Since that time she has worked in the communications field for Big Brothers Big Sisters of North East Florida, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and currently is the director of communications for the American Heart Association-First Coast Market.

She has been a member of the North Florida Public Relations Society of America since 2004. In 2006, Katie’s Big Brothers Big Sisters of North East Florida Bowl For Kids Sake public relations campaign received a local Image and Judges award from the Jacksonville Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association.  Katie became accredited in public relations in September of 2011.

Katie, is an active member of our community always looking for innovative ways to bring education and engagement to our community. We look forward to hearing her diverse views and passion about serving her community.

We failed!

We learned!  We succeeded!

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Thomas A. Edison

As I write this post I will work back and forth between I and we, because there are personal insights as a leader and team insights that will be revealed. Personal failings and team failings are intermingled.

I tried to do something way bigger than I should have. Hence I failed. 

I worked to create a social experiment and the lessons are rich and deep. For that I am blessed. 

I am OK with sharing failure. Revealing the lessons, helps me to learn and I hope you might learn from my mistakes. I have noticed, not many people share their failures. I wonder why? We know why, cause, maybe you will not respect me any more. Maybe you will not support me any more. Well dear reader, I know that I know how to learn and refine.

Yesterday I spoke at the Jacksonville Business Journal Diversity Awards. I tried to do an interactive exercise and lost sight of a few things.

The main reasons I failed are clear. There are many more nuances but these three are clear and able to directly learn from.

1. Did not understand the dynamics of the event well enough to create something so complex.

2. Overlooked the real reason for the event: to celebrate and inspire. NOT LEARN.

3. Did not have enough collaboration with the key vision holder.

What I did learn about innovation and diversity.

INNOVATION

1. It is hard to get people to innovate if they do not see the need to.

2. Innovation requires a special environment: order and chaos in the right proportion.

3. The timing of innovation efforts MUST be considered.

DIVERSITY:

1. Getting voices heard is an art.

2. Helping people to understand the value of their voices takes time.

3. Creating a space that allows for voices to be heard is critical. 

WE Succeeded!

1. Learned that my team is incredibly flexible and capable

2. They are dedicated to excellence.

3. They feel comfortable sharing insights to help us all succeed. 

4. Made many contacts that are rich and powerful

5. Came together as a team and were willing to debrief in a healthy creative way. 

So this is the beginning of a journey. We are "all in" as they say and willing to reveal, so we may learn and connect with others who too are on the journey to re-creating. 

Look forward to your insights!

I want to take a moment to personally thank David Sillick and Kara Rosario of the Journal for their willingness to take a chance with this sorta wild Idea I had...we took a chance, had an opportunity to learn and we will all move forward in new ways.

In the next day or two, I will be sharing what actually happened at the event and share the insights into the social experiment.

What is Good? What is Bad? | Judgements Abound!

These two images are the open slides to a presentation I did at the Jacksonville Business Journal Diversity Awards this morning. I had the honor to create a fun experience and take risks because someone trusted me. Why? I am not sure...well maybe cause I have some radical ideas and David Sellick knows that those are the ideas that might change the way we do business.

Our ability to continually let go of and hold onto judgements is at the root of our ability to think innovatively. As we look for new and diverse ideas and perspectives we must open ourselves to ideas that we might deem "BAD" so we might find something "GOOD". 

Pretty ironic isn't it??

I look forward to hearing the ideas and thoughts of those that attended so that we may continue to foster diversity in our community with the hopes of changing it for the better!

Why Should I Listen to You?

I am in the process of preparing my speech for the Jacksonville Business Journal Diversity Awards.  As I do, I have been busy interviewing and researching for my topic: Innovation Inspired by Diversity.

One of my research methods is interviewing the people around me about my topic. I seek various perspectives and see what I am missing. I ask a few questions and get ideas from the brilliant people God has put in my life. It is fun and enjoyable way for my pals to add into my work in a way that is fun and engaging. I often quote them and cite their brilliance from the podium.

So the other day, I am with a friend who is recently been through a horrible divorce.She is feel down and in this zone of fear and healing. We were having breakfast and sharing our lives. I spoke to her about my process and hoped it would help her see her way through. Eventually she asked me what I am working on, so I shared this topic of diversity and innovation. 

She asked me the purpose of the speech. I said, I wanted people to comprehend that exploring other perspectives on a situation is good and healthy. That we as a community have so many resources and that when we bring people together, we must have a respect for all view points even though we might not understand them. We talked about it and laughed and cried and enjoyed creating some ideas together.

Suddenly she blurted out, a big thought. She asked my why I felt I had what it took to speak in front of a few hundred people. She simply asked, "Why would they listen to you?" As I took in her question, I realized she was the person feeling like no one listens to her. I told her why, and she smiled. She told me how proud she was of me and how she hoped one day she would be capable of doing similar work. I know she will heal and i know that as I help her see how I find mine, she will find hers. That is how the divine works! It is called living in the world of diversity. Innovation...love.

What I was struck by is her fear and her ability to find her voice within the fray. I have to be honest, I started crying, with joy as we spoke. As I listened to her ideas, she found her voice that morning. She found a way to express her wisdom, her perspectives in a way that honored her and her journey. WOW, what a blessing this speech prep has been for not only me, but the people around me.

I felt so grateful that I have the chance to find my voice in a way that will help my community. I know that the work I do helps others find theirs. So as I jump back into the work of getting ready for the event tomorrow, I shall bring everyone's journey with me to fuel and focus the pile of to dos. 

Looking forward till tomorrow...

Innovation Inspired By Diversity

We are grateful to be a part of this years Jacksonville Business Journal Diversity Awards - May 1. Not only do we get to honor some of the thought leaders in our city, we get to share about one of our favorite topics. 

Diversity, is at the core of many of the Pillars of Character. As we take a look at diversity, we will be sharing how this way of thinking may inspire innovation, if wielded in the right way. We will discover how to look at things in new perspectives as well as experience what it feels like to hold a perspective that is not understood or popular.

In working with the team at JBJ, we have had the chance to witness an openness to innovation. We proposed a pretty out of the box approach to the event and were encouraged to go with it. It was a great thing to actually work with a team that is willing to trust creativity and explore alternatives. 

When we are willing to actually take a look at the many perspectives in the room, the situation, the community...we are able to potentially see opportunities for deeper exploration for solutions, innovations and most importantly relationships.

Truly the JBJ, is walking their talk and bringing diversity to all that it does. Kudos to the team!

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